Crypto Weekly News — October, 23

What important crypto events happened last week?

Cryptocurrencies

📌 Bitcoin Touches New 2020 High Above $13,000 – What’s Next?

The first cryptocurrency has updated its maximum since July 2019. On the night of October 22, the Bitcoin's price on the Binance Exchange reached $13,235, later corrected to $12,800. Still, it seems that the trend continues to be bullish, and we will see a rise to the $14,000 resistance level.

📌 Big Update For Stellar Lumens: Protocol 15 Announced 

The Stellar Development Foundation made an update of the Stellar Lumens public blockchain. It bypassed Protocol version 14, as critical errors were detected during the testing phase. Protocol 15, so named to avoid confusion, was launched on the test network on October, 20.

📌 Bitfinex Announces Staking Rewards For Polkadot (DOT)

The Bitfinex Exchange has added a staking option for the Polkadot project's token (DOT). The users depositing and holding DOT will get up to a 14% reward. According to Bitfinex, all the tokens will be securely stored in cold wallets.

Projects And Updates

📌 Kraken Relaunches Crypto Trading In Japan After Two-Year Break

Kraken cryptocurrency exchange has resumed working for residents of Japan. To do this, it had to register as a crypto asset exchange service provider following the Payment Services Act of Japan. Customers will be able to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. Kraken first launched in Japan in 2014 but left the country in 2018 due to increased control of the cryptocurrency market after a major hack of the Coincheck exchange.

📌 Chainwire Launches Blockchain-Focused Automated Press Release Distribution Service

Market Across launches Chainwire, a project for automated distribution of press releases. This is the first such service for the cryptocurrency industry. The system is integrated with leading publishing platforms and blogs, which allows companies to create up-to-date reports using a convenient interface.

📌 Crypto Domain Owners Can Now Be Verified With Twitter Accounts For Safer Payments

Unstoppable Domains, in partnership with Chainlink, announced a Twitter authorization option for .crypto domain owners. MyEtherWallet became the first platform to support this integration. The developers believe that this will help make crypto payments more user-friendly and reduce the number of fraudulent practices.

Regulation

📌 Crypto Regulations: Swiss Parliament Approves New Laws

The Swiss Parliament has approved new laws concerning regulation in the sphere of digital finance. The purpose of the package of amendments is to adapt existing laws to the developments of blockchain technologies and the cryptocurrency industry. The new rules will be applied in the next year.

📌 Hong Kong Central Bank Willing To Test Digital Yuan

Hong Kong authorities are in close consultation with the People's Bank of China on the integration of the digital currency. Hong Kong's Monetary Authority financial services and treasury secretary, Christopher Hui, said that Hong Kong's independent digital currency research focuses on cross-border payments, not on domestic circulation.

📌 Berlin Closes Bar That Has Been Accepting Bitcoin Since 2011

Entrepreneur Jörg Platzer closed the Room 77 bar, where customers could pay for their order with Bitcoins. According to the owner, the first payment in cryptocurrency in Room 77 was accepted in 2011. Although the reasons for the closure weren’t named, many associate it with difficulties caused by restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

📌 New Russia Rules To Set Limit On Digital Asset Buy For Retail Investors

The Central Bank of Russia has issued a plan of a directive defining the characteristics of digital financial assets that can be purchased by "qualified" and "unqualified" investors. According to the document, individuals and individual entrepreneurs who are not qualified investors will be able to purchase digital assets of up to 600 000 rubles a year.

Mass Adoption

📌 Paypal To Enable Crypto Purchases With The Help Of Paxos

The payment giant has partnered with blockchain startup Paxos to provide services for its users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. PayPal will add support for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC), which will allow users of the payment system to buy and sell these assets, as well as store them on the built-in wallet.

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